Using data from the National Center for Education Statistics, Stacker listed the 50 most selective colleges in the United States. The institutions are ranked according to acceptance rates. Â
50 most selective colleges in America
Updated
While there is no shortage of exceptional colleges in the United States, there are millions of gifted kids across the nation jockeying for limited seats at some of America's top universities every year. Parents often go to great financial lengths to send their children to some of the nation's most prestigious schools, the likes of which include paying private school tuition, hiring personal tutors, or paying for test prep classes that typically cost upwards of $1,000.
Using data from the National Center for Education Statistics, Stacker listed the 50 most selective colleges in the United States. The institutions are ranked according to acceptance rates. Statistics pertaining to total acceptance and enrollment are provided for context. Stacker used the latest available NCES data for this story, ranking schools that received at least 1,000 applications for the 2020-2021 academic year.
Read on to see if your alma mater is among the most competitive schools in the nation today.
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#50. Georgia Institute of Technology-Main Campus, Georgia
Updated
- Acceptance rate: 15.96%
- Total accepted: 7,030 (44,048 total applicants)
- Total enrolled: 3,453 (49.1% yield)
#49. University of Notre Dame, Indiana
Updated
- Acceptance rate: 15.07%
- Total accepted: 3,562 (23,642 total applicants)
- Total enrolled: 2,059 (57.8% yield)
#48. Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, New York
Updated
- Acceptance rate: 14.68%
- Total accepted: 393 (2,678 total applicants)
- Total enrolled: 210 (53.4% yield)
#47. University of California-Berkeley, California
Updated
- Acceptance rate: 14.44%
- Total accepted: 16,295 (112,843 total applicants)
- Total enrolled: 6,931 (42.5% yield)
#46. Colorado College, Colorado
Updated
- Acceptance rate: 14.25%
- Total accepted: 1,564 (10,975 total applicants)
- Total enrolled: 620 (39.6% yield)
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#45. Hamilton College, New York
Updated
- Acceptance rate: 14.07%
- Total accepted: 1,320 (9,380 total applicants)
- Total enrolled: 533 (40.4% yield)
#44. Carnegie Mellon University, Pennsylvania
Updated
- Acceptance rate: 13.54%
- Total accepted: 4,453 (32,896 total applicants)
- Total enrolled: 1,896 (42.6% yield)
#43. Middlebury College, Vermont
Updated
- Acceptance rate: 13.45%
- Total accepted: 1,601 (11,906 total applicants)
- Total enrolled: 680 (42.5% yield)
#42. Emory University, Georgia
Updated
- Acceptance rate: 13.05%
- Total accepted: 4,364 (33,435 total applicants)
- Total enrolled: 1,494 (34.2% yield)
#41. Washington University in St Louis, Missouri
Updated
- Acceptance rate: 13.00%
- Total accepted: 4,373 (33,634 total applicants)
- Total enrolled: 1,980 (45.3% yield)
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#40. New York University, New York
Updated
- Acceptance rate: 12.96%
- Total accepted: 12,380 (95,517 total applicants)
- Total enrolled: 6,097 (49.2% yield)
#39. University of Southern California, California
Updated
- Acceptance rate: 12.51%
- Total accepted: 8,884 (71,031 total applicants)
- Total enrolled: 3,668 (41.3% yield)
#38. United States Air Force Academy, Colorado
Updated
- Acceptance rate: 12.43%
- Total accepted: 1,453 (11,687 total applicants)
- Total enrolled: 1,091 (75.1% yield)
#37. St. Andrews University, North Carolina
Updated
- Acceptance rate: 12.29%
- Total accepted: 266 (2,164 total applicants)
- Total enrolled: 261 (98.1% yield)
#36. Georgetown University, Washington, D.C.
Updated
- Acceptance rate: 11.98%
- Total accepted: 3,311 (27,629 total applicants)
- Total enrolled: 1,585 (47.9% yield)
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#35. Barnard College, New York
Updated
- Acceptance rate: 11.47%
- Total accepted: 1,192 (10,395 total applicants)
- Total enrolled: 769 (64.5% yield)
#34. Tufts University, Massachusetts
Updated
- Acceptance rate: 11.43%
- Total accepted: 3,566 (31,198 total applicants)
- Total enrolled: 1,800 (50.5% yield)
#33. Claremont McKenna College, California
Updated
- Acceptance rate: 11.24%
- Total accepted: 633 (5,632 total applicants)
- Total enrolled: 358 (56.6% yield)
#32. University of California-Los Angeles, California
Updated
- Acceptance rate: 10.77%
- Total accepted: 15,028 (139,489 total applicants)
- Total enrolled: 6,584 (43.8% yield)
#31. United States Military Academy, New York
Updated
- Acceptance rate: 10.66%
- Total accepted: 1,488 (13,955 total applicants)
- Total enrolled: 1,201 (80.7% yield)
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#30. Grinnell College, Iowa
Updated
- Acceptance rate: 10.54%
- Total accepted: 1,108 (10,513 total applicants)
- Total enrolled: 471 (42.5% yield)
#29. Stanbridge University, California
Updated
- Acceptance rate: 10.50%
- Total accepted: 173 (1,648 total applicants)
- Total enrolled: 161 (93.1% yield)
#28. Harvey Mudd College, California
Updated
- Acceptance rate: 9.99%
- Total accepted: 473 (4,737 total applicants)
- Total enrolled: 225 (47.6% yield)
#27. Tulane University of Louisiana, Louisiana
Updated
- Acceptance rate: 9.63%
- Total accepted: 4,385 (45,525 total applicants)
- Total enrolled: 2,027 (46.2% yield)
#26. Rice University, Texas
Updated
- Acceptance rate: 9.48%
- Total accepted: 2,802 (29,544 total applicants)
- Total enrolled: 1,226 (43.8% yield)
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#25. Colby College, Maine
Updated
- Acceptance rate: 8.87%
- Total accepted: 1,407 (15,857 total applicants)
- Total enrolled: 667 (47.4% yield)
#24. Williams College, Massachusetts
Updated
- Acceptance rate: 8.83%
- Total accepted: 1,099 (12,452 total applicants)
- Total enrolled: 574 (52.2% yield)
#23. Bowdoin College, Maine
Updated
- Acceptance rate: 8.82%
- Total accepted: 822 (9,325 total applicants)
- Total enrolled: 517 (62.9% yield)
#22. Amherst College, Massachusetts
Updated
- Acceptance rate: 8.74%
- Total accepted: 1,224 (13,999 total applicants)
- Total enrolled: 515 (42.1% yield)
#21. Cornell University, New York
Updated
- Acceptance rate: 8.69%
- Total accepted: 5,852 (67,380 total applicants)
- Total enrolled: 3,718 (63.5% yield)
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#20. United States Naval Academy, Maryland
Updated
- Acceptance rate: 8.45%
- Total accepted: 1,374 (16,265 total applicants)
- Total enrolled: 1,183 (86.1% yield)
#19. Swarthmore College, Pennsylvania
Updated
- Acceptance rate: 7.79%
- Total accepted: 1,013 (13,012 total applicants)
- Total enrolled: 454 (44.8% yield)
#18. Johns Hopkins University, Maryland
Updated
- Acceptance rate: 7.52%
- Total accepted: 2,972 (39,515 total applicants)
- Total enrolled: 1,420 (47.8% yield)
#17. The Juilliard School, New York
Updated
- Acceptance rate: 7.43%
- Total accepted: 174 (2,342 total applicants)
- Total enrolled: 110 (63.2% yield)
#16. Vanderbilt University, Tennessee
Updated
- Acceptance rate: 7.14%
- Total accepted: 3,368 (47,152 total applicants)
- Total enrolled: 1,626 (48.3% yield)
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#14. Pomona College, California
Updated
- Acceptance rate: 6.64%
- Total accepted: 771 (11,620 total applicants)
- Total enrolled: 451 (58.5% yield)
#13. University of Chicago, Illinois
Updated
- Acceptance rate: 6.48%
- Total accepted: 2,460 (37,974 total applicants)
- Total enrolled: 2,053 (83.5% yield)
#12. Dartmouth College, New Hampshire
Updated
- Acceptance rate: 6.17%
- Total accepted: 1,750 (28,356 total applicants)
- Total enrolled: 1,221 (69.8% yield)
#11. Duke University, North Carolina
Updated
- Acceptance rate: 5.89%
- Total accepted: 2,927 (49,703 total applicants)
- Total enrolled: 1,744 (59.6% yield)
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#10. University of Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania
Updated
- Acceptance rate: 5.87%
- Total accepted: 3,304 (56,332 total applicants)
- Total enrolled: 2,418 (73.2% yield)
#9. Brown University, Rhode Island
Updated
- Acceptance rate: 5.51%
- Total accepted: 2,568 (46,568 total applicants)
- Total enrolled: 1,705 (66.4% yield)
#8. Yale University, Connecticut
Updated
- Acceptance rate: 5.31%
- Total accepted: 2,509 (47,240 total applicants)
- Total enrolled: 1,786 (71.2% yield)
#7. Princeton University, New Jersey
Updated
- Acceptance rate: 4.38%
- Total accepted: 1,647 (37,601 total applicants)
- Total enrolled: 1,290 (78.3% yield)
#6. Columbia University in the City of New York, New York
Updated
- Acceptance rate: 4.13%
- Total accepted: 2,524 (61,110 total applicants)
- Total enrolled: 1,641 (65.0% yield)
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#5. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Massachusetts
Updated
- Acceptance rate: 4.11%
- Total accepted: 1,365 (33,240 total applicants)
- Total enrolled: 1,177 (86.2% yield)
#4. Harvard University, Massachusetts
Updated
- Acceptance rate: 4.01%
- Total accepted: 2,318 (57,786 total applicants)
- Total enrolled: 1,951 (84.2% yield)
#3. Stanford University, California
Updated
- Acceptance rate: 3.95%
- Total accepted: 2,190 (55,471 total applicants)
- Total enrolled: 1,757 (80.2% yield)
#2. California Institute of Technology, California
Updated
- Acceptance rate: 3.92%
- Total accepted: 510 (13,026 total applicants)
- Total enrolled: 270 (52.9% yield)
#1. Minerva University, California
Updated
- Acceptance rate: 1.02%
- Total accepted: 256 (25,026 total applicants)
- Total enrolled: 186 (72.7% yield)
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Originally published on stacker.com, part of the BLOX Digital Content Exchange.
As featured on
Stacker compiled a list of the colleges whose graduates earn the most, using 2021 data—relea…
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